Author: Andy

I know it has been a while since I last posted, but circumstances have conspired against me.

Apart from WordPress introducing a baffling new layout which I find infuriating and leaving me not wanting to fight my way through it to post here, it doesn’t mean I haven’t been busy, especially in relation to the bees.

Below is an amazing picture, where the queen and bees have decided to lay some brood in precisely the shape of a hexagon, within a frame of stored food. This is the shape they use for each cell in their comb, as it is the most efficient use of space. To then use it on a larger scale for the brood pattern is one of those amazing things bees do.

At last it’s time to finish off my weather vane posts. I last left the story with the base of the weather vane in zinc undercoat. I finished off the pig for the ‘wind’ part from plasma cut aluminium and balanced it on a rod with a curly tail end for decoration and balance. This fitted over the vertical part of the main vane stem with a greased ball bearing to allow it to swing easily in the wind.

With the whole assembly screwed in place of the original tatty weather vane, I was quite pleased with the result.

it weighs about 3 times as much as the ‘shop bought’ one it replaces and should last a lot more than 3 times as long. I have added some twists and scrolls to the design, partly for strength but mainly for decoration.

I have also added my trademark, and favourite, use of organic scrolls along with industrial rivets in the strapping design to support the vertical post. A quick bit of compass work also confirmed the need for a twist in the post to get it perfectly aligned.

Now to the N, E, S and W indicators and the all important vane itself.

I have been thinking for a while that I need to replace the shop bought weather vane, currently sitting over the garage, with a proper blacksmith made weather vane.

The current weather vane, as seen here, was bought about 20 years ago from a garden centre somewhere long forgotten.

It was chosen more for its subject matter than its overall design, pigs being a favourite of my wife.

However, over recent years the weather has taken its toll and I have had to make a few running repairs to the arms. From a distance it still looks OK, but for a while I have wanted to make a slightly more ornate weather vane before the old one falls apart.

So now I have set the scene, the work began. The one stipulation was that it must have the same basic pig design. I therefore started by taking a photograph of the pig and blowing it up onto aluminium sheet, but more of that to come.